York, Pa. (May 1, 2015) - Senior Brok Martin drove the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the 10th into left field to plate Chris Burns with the walk-off run and top-seeded Alvernia University (30-11) defeated #3 Stevenson University (20-18-2) 6-5 in the winners bracket final of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships on Friday afternoon at Santander Stadium.
 
Burns opened the 10th with a single to left field and moved up on a sacrifice bunt by designated hitter Zach Nadolny.  After an intentional walk to Cameron Coons, freshman Mike Cunningham ripped a short-hop liner to Widener first baseman that turned into a force out of Coons at second and moved Burns to third with two out.
 
Martin delivered with a game-winning single to left that emptied the Alvernia dugout and sent the Crusaders into the championship round to face the winner of the losers bracket final between Stevenson and #4 Widener.
 
Stevenson started off the scoring in the top of the second inning plating three runs on four hits and two Alvernia errors.
 
After Stevenson starter Dan Williams faced the minimum through the first three innings, Alvernia got its first base runner of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning with a leadoff single by Richie Ricciardi. Ben Dubas walked to put two on and conference player of the year Ben Sawyer delivered the first run and a Chris Burns fielder's choice brought in Dubas.
 
The Crusaders took the lead in the fifth on a 2-out, 2-run home run from Dubas. Ricciardi was on first base after an error by the Mustangs' first baseman, and Dubas hit a rocket over the right field wall to give the Crusaders a 4-3 lead.
 
The Mustangs evened it up with a 2- run home run off of Backlund in the top of the eighth inning. Stevenson put the go-ahead run on base with a single off Backlund, and eventually loaded the bases with one out on back-to-back singles off closer Kevin Becker-Menditto. Kevin Kopas ripped a 2-1 pitch up the middle of reliever Louis Marotta, but Ricciardi was in the right place to snag the liner and doubled Brody Tennant off second to end the threat.
 
Marotta finished the game throwing 2.2 innings allowing just two hits without a run to earn the win.  He now holds both wins for the Crusaders in the championship.
 
The Crusaders advance to the championship game on Saturday at noon.
 
#1 Alvernia 6, #3 Stevenson 5 (10)